Birthday Blues
by Muggle Jane
Summary: Luna sneaks out of Hogwarts to help George get through his birthday. Oneshot written for HPFC Battle of the Houses!


**A/N: Disclaimer involving not owning characters and not making money. Written for the HPFC Battle of the Houses with the prompt "a midnight excursion"**

They still hadn't closed up the passage in the Room of Requirement. Luna didn't want to go to the Hog's Head Inn, not exactly, but it did allow her to get far enough outside of the castle to apparate. And so, at approximately half-past midnight, she slipped from the dorm she shared with her fellow Ravenclaws and stole silently through the castle until she reached the Room of Requirement. Being known to sleepwalk had its uses, sometimes, people tended not to look at her twice if she was found out of bed in the middle of the night.

Then again, most people tend not to look at her twice anyway. Or they hadn't. This year was a little different.

It was exactly the room she needed it to be. She was eternally grateful it hadn't been destroyed in that last battle. The Room of Hidden Things had been, or so she'd been told, but she wasn't looking for hidden things. She was looking for a way out.

She pulled herself up easily into the tunnel behind the portrait and started to walk. The stone was cool and rough under her bare feet. No one had took her shoes anymore, but after so long she found she preferred to walk without them. She walked on through the tunnel and after a time, she felt it. She stepped outside that invisible barrier that protected Hogwarts and immediately apparated out to London.

Diagon Alley was quiet and still at that hour. There was some noise at the far end in the Leaky Cauldron, but no one was awake where she was. She slipped the small key from her pocket and unlocked the door, stealing inside and locking it again. He hadn't changed the wards to exclude her, which meant she was able to slip through the shop and up the back stairs to his flat without him being alarmed by her presence.

He wasn't sleeping, of course. She knew he wouldn't be, that was why she was there. He was sitting on his bed, still dressed from the day but with his shoes and robes off and his waistcoat and the top few buttons of his shirt undone. He was staring into a tumbler of what was very likely firewhiskey and when I stole into the room, it took a few long moments before he noticed me, standing in the doorway.

"What are you doing here?" he asked, his voice slowed a little from what he'd already had to drink.

"You know why I'm here," Luna said quietly, walking through the room and settling on the bed beside him. She leaned into his shoulder and his arm automatically went around her. They'd spent a considerable amount of time like that since the battle had ended almost a year ago.

"I got you something," he said, but made no move to get up. "It's downstairs in the shop, all wrapped and everything." It had been her birthday just before the day changed at midnight, and now it was his birthday.

"I got you me," she replied in her dreamy way, which made him chuckle a little. Even the sound of mirth was a little lost and sad.

"What about school?" he asked, leaning away from her to put the tumbler on the bedside table. After he set it down with a light glass clunk, he turned slightly towards her and slipped one arm behind her back, the other settling heavily around her waist.

"I sleepwalk, you know," she said, shifting to drape her own arm across his stomach. She settled her head in the hollow where his shoulder met his chest and felt him leave a kiss on her hair.

"I know," he replied, and there was a trace of amusement in his voice, so heavy with loneliness. He'd woken up a few times to find her moving quietly about his flat.

"And it's Easter break. They'll know why I don't show up for the train, of course, but the sleepwalking is a convenient excuse that everyone will use. They're concerned about you too, especially Professor Flitwick."

"I'm fine." The lie fell flat on the bed between them.

"You're not," she corrected him gently. "It's alright to not be fine. It's your first birthday without him. I just wish I could stay here with you."

"You can't," he protested. "You need to finish school. You missed most of last year..." He kissed the top of her head again. "One of us needs to be smart."

"You're very intelligent," she observed evenly, her fingers finding the button on his shirt and toying with it.

"Your N.E.W.T.s will look good to potential investors." That was something she'd told him and she nodded when he echoed it, resettling her head against his chest.

"At least we get a week, and then it'll only be a few months until I don't have to go back at all." They hadn't really spoken about her staying with him after school let out, but it seemed to be something that was understood between them. She'd visited with him over the summer, before school started. On Christmas holidays, she'd come to see him and had ended up not leaving until she'd had to catch the train. She'd slept beside him in his bed and a relationship had developed between them in a quiet, unhurried fashion. Every so often she would slip from Hogwarts and visit him for an evening or a night, just as she had that night. Everyone knew and everyone politely ignored her rule-breaking in favor of healing and recovery, for surely that's what her nocturnal visits were. After all, George had reopened the shop he'd started with his brother and laughter is the best medicine.

"Mum may not like it," he said after a while. "You living with me, I mean. I'm nowhere close to being ready to get married."

"Perhaps. Or perhaps she might decide that you need to do whatever makes you happy."

He pulled back from her and lifted his hand to tip up her chin. "Make me smile, Luna."

She moved up to her knees, bracing her hands on his shoulders, and leaned forward to brush her lips across his. Her gentle kisses always made him smile and she smiled to see it. "You look weary," she said, sitting back on her heels.

"I am," he admitted. "It's been a long day. Tomorrow will be too. I'm glad you're here."

She slipped from the bed and rummaged around in a drawer until she pulled out one of his undershirts. She changed into it as though it was a nightgown and then got back into his bed, sliding between the sheets. "Lie with me, George," she implored softly.

He stood and stripped down to nothing, then joined her under the blanket. His arms went around her again and she settled against him. "What are you going to do about clothes?"

"I'll stop home and get some tomorrow," she replied. I imagine while you're visiting with your mum and dad."

"Or you could just wear my shirt... Or nothing." He leered at her, making her giggle. After a moment, his face fell into subdued lines again. "Make me smile, Luna," he repeated.

She raised her head up and gave him another soft kiss.

"It's getting easier, at least a little bit," he said when she eased down beside him again. "Just not today."

"I know," she said simply, kissing his bare shoulder.

"Aren't you supposed to be studying this week?"

"I will. You have a shop to run, after all, and I'll need to have something to do to occupy my time." She kissed his shoulder again. "You don't need to worry about me."

"Worrying about you..." He paused and took a great, shuddering breath, trailing a finger along her shoulder and down her arm. "Loving you, Luna, helps me get through my days."

"Close your eyes and hold me until your dreams take you away," she whispered.


End file.
